ADVERTORIAL
The Tree Was Decorated, So Was the Mantel, but the Wall Still Felt Empty, and a Lighted Cardinal Hanging Tied It Together
Julie C.'s tree and mantel had company in the front hall last Christmas, a lighted cardinal hanging on the wall beside the stairs.
Our tree stands in front of the big window, with the mantel straight across from it.
The tree was decorated. So was the mantel. But the wall still felt empty.
The wall is in the front hall, beside the coat closet, and it runs up past the half-flight of stairs to the landing.
It's where our Esslyn Lighted Cardinal Love Cascade goes now.
Two red cardinals face each other inside a heart of frosted greenery, and below them warm LED light flows down through lit snowflakes to an Always Together plaque with two bells.
Every table in the house is spoken for in December, and it didn't need one.
The routine
The ornaments that hang well go on the tree. On the mantel go the pine along the top, the candles, and between them the ones too heavy or too odd for the branches, the walnut Santa and the cast-iron reindeer.
Next to the coat closet
It isn't a big wall, but it's the tallest one in the house. I'd never put a thing on it, and nobody had complained. With the rest of the house decorated, it looked a little incomplete.
The hall table was full already
The Christmas cards stand on the hall table as they come in, and by the middle of December you can't see the wood.
Another ornament anywhere would have crowded something that already looked right.
The tables had ALL they could hold, so I started thinking about the wall.
At the eye doctor's
Our eye doctor had one on the wall of the waiting room, and by the time my name was called I'd made up my mind about the wall by our coat closet.
I ordered ours that afternoon.
At the top, the berries are bright red against the frost, and the cardinals sit close enough to touch.
From the heart, strands of warm light fall through snowflakes that light up too. Down at the foot, the plaque sits on a sprig of pine with a red bow, and two bells hang under it.
The whole thing is far taller than it is wide, and the Esslyn Lighted Cardinal Love Cascade suits a staircase wall or an entryway. The wall by our coat closet is both.
The plaque says Always Together, and in our house that's Walter and me.
Evenings by the stairs
Before dark, it's the RED you notice, the two cardinals in their frosted greenery against the beige wall.
After dark the cardinals sit in their own warm light.
We STILL turn on the hall light at night to see our way.
Finally connected
From the landing you can see the cardinals beside you and, through the arch, the tree and the mantel.
The tree, the mantel and the wall in the hall are one display now.
The cardinals are the same red as the ribbon on our tree.
Once the cardinals were up
Before the Christmas cards come
The Esslyn Lighted Cardinal Love Cascade gave the front hall its share of Christmas and left the tables alone.
One costs $49.99, under the store's 30-day money-back guarantee.
Our first Christmas card usually comes before the end of November.
"Last year was my first Christmas without my husband, Vern. I hung it in the narrow hall to the bedrooms, right across from our wedding picture. The two words on the plaque are the reason I bought it, and I read them every night."
"We don't have a mantel or a hall table, so every Christmas the tree had to do everything by itself. Last year the cardinals hung in our entry. This is Florida, so the frosty branches and the lit snowflakes are as close to a white Christmas as we get."
"Our stairs go up from the living room, and the wall beside them was too tall for any picture we owned. We'd tried a mirror there, and it looked lost. My granddaughter says the two cardinals at the top are talking to each other."